Coping in Konoha
by AngelInTheSky26
Summary: When a certain pink-haired girl starts attending Konoha High School, it's obvious that she's had past issues. Will the tall and handsome red haired boy in her class and his friends be able to break down her walls? Or will she be left in the darkness to fend for herself?
1. Of Pink Hair and Street Lights

**Disclaimer: ****I own nothing in this story except for the plot and possibly some very, very minor-role OC's. Maybe.**

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Beep! Beep! Beep! Be-Crash!

"Ouch, un!" cried the alarm clock's unsuspecting victim from outside. Back up in the bedroom where the clock came from, somebody else was waking up.

"Ugh, stupid alarm clock, waking me up early," grumbled a female voice from the bed in the corner, where a young pink haired girl about the age of 16 was waking. Deciding she was much too lazy to get out of bed, just yet, the girl snuggled back up into the blankets to go back to sleep. She had just fallen back asleep when she was rudely awakened, yet again, only this time it was because of someone stomping very loudly towards her room.

"God dammit, Sakura, are you trying to kill me or something, un?!" screamed a male voice as her bedroom door slammed open, only to be followed by more stomping.

Said girl just groaned and, rolling over to look at the intruder, saw a young, 6' 2" man of about the age of twenty with blonde hair and brownish eyes towering above her wearing a very annoyed look on his face. As she watched him shake his fist at her, she decided that it would take her less energy if she just rolled all the way onto her back to look at him. She then snorted.

"Deidara, you and I both know that if I really and truly wanted you dead, the other me would have already killed you." The pinkette watched as he stopped ranting, and then as he slowly lowered his hand.

"Oh, right. Forgot about that. Good point," he conceded. "By the way, Pein wanted me to tell you that you start school in forty minutes, so you might want to hurry up."

"Tell Pein to make himself some coffee. He obviously needs some, since school doesn't start for another hour and a half." However, she quickly grew confused when Deidara gave her an odd look.

"Sakura, I think you're the one who needs coffee. Today's your first day at Konoha High School, remember?" He just received a blank expression. "Apparently not." He watched in amusement as the blank look on her face slowly started changing to one of recognition. Despite the warning this should've given him, Deidara was still unable to move out of the way in time before Sakura bolted out of her bed and over to her dresser, making him fall over and hit his head on the corner of her desk.

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Meanwhile, downstairs in the kitchen, a man in his early thirties with orange hair, purple eyes, and facial piercings was sitting at a rectangular table drinking coffee and reading the daily paper. Across from him sat another man, about the same age as Deidara, only he had red hair and brown eyes. He was peacefully eating a bowl of Cap'n Crunch. Both men were sitting there in comfortable silence, minding their own business, when they hear a loud thump come from upstairs, followed simply by more silence. The two men paused in what they were doing to look at each other, and were about to resume their previous activities when there came yet another loud thump, this time closely followed by a very loud, very irritated feminine voice.

"Deidara, you gay pervert, GET OUT OF MY ROOM!" This was followed by still another loud thud and a door slamming. The red head glanced upwards momentarily, but turned back to the man in front of him when he heard a chuckle coming from the orange haired person.

"And why, pray tell, do you find that so amusing, Pein?" the first person asked suspiciously. He grew even more so when he saw his companion get an innocent grin on his face.

"Why, Sasori, I assure you I have no idea what you are talking about," Pein said sweetly. Sasori just raised an eyebrow at him until finally, "Fine. I sent Deidara to wake her up because, quite frankly, she terrifies me when she's like that. You know how she gets when she's tired and in a hurry."

Sasori just shook his head and sighed. "Call me crazy here, but for some reason I get the feeling that Tobi would much prefer his boyfriend to be alive and well. Don't throw Deidara under the bus just because you're a coward." Pein just sat there with a dumbfounded look on his face and suddenly burst out in raucous laughter.

"Well, I can't really deny that, now can I?" his face suddenly turned serious. Sasori was about to ask what his friend was thinking about, but at that moment, Deidara decided to step into the kitchen. Nursing a newly formed bump on his head, he said, "She still hasn't seemed to figure out the faulty logic in calling me a gay pervert in that kind of situation. Noticing the slightly odd mood in the room, the blonde quickly quieted down.

"Are you guys sure Sakura's ready to go back to school so soon? What if things don't go well again? What are we going to do if they find out about...that, again?"

Deidara and Pein looked at their red-haired friend in exasperation. This was not the first time they had had this conversation. Since that day two months ago when Sakura had come downstairs and informed her stand-in family that she wished to attend the high school nearby, the boys' present conversation had been repeated and rehashed multiple different times. To Sakura, who had the uncanny ability to sense when she was talking about and liked to listen in, found the whole topic to be getting rather old and annoying.

Pein was the first to respond to Sasori's question. "Her therapist said that Sakura would let us know when she felt ready to go back to school again, and that when the time comes we need to let her."

"Yeah, I get that, but look at what happened the last time we did that. She ended up getting bullied so bad that she tried to kill herself, Pein!"

"He has a point, un."

"That's because all of the people there were snobby, spoiled, rich brats and she didn't have anyone there to help her. But that won't be a problem here because she'll have Kakashi and, with any luck, she'll make friends to lean on."

"Sorry, Sasori, but he has officially just trumped you, un."

"But how is she supposed to make friends when she can't even interact with us half the time?! Having someone she knows around doesn't do her much good if she doesn't know how to deal with people from the get-go. And you know full well that she's still royally pissed at Kakashi for not taking her with him when he left."

"Do you have something against people who are blonde and talk a lot?!"

Both men whirled on the blonde and shouted, "Shut UP, you idiot!" before going back to their current argument. Deidara soon got bored watching them and was walking to the living room to watch some TV show about a teenage assassin with blue flames or something-or-other when he heard a yell.

"Dei-chan, I need help!" Said man just sighed and rolled his eyes, realizing that he would have to wait even longer for some TV time. He turned around and started making his way upstairs.

Once he reached Sakura's bedroom door, he walked in saying, "You need help alright, but unfortunately I'm not qualified to give you the kind of help that you need."

When the pink-haired girl turned from whatever she was doing to fix him with a death glare, Deidara just chuckled and asked, "Well, what's the problem?"

"I don't know what to wear, and seeing as how you have better fashion sense than I do -gay pervert- I figured I'd just ask you to help."

"Good idea. I've seen the outfits you pull together, and believe me, they aren't pretty." He ignored a yell of protest coming from behind him. "Let's see… ah, wear this." He handed her a small pile of clothes and quickly shoved her into her bathroom.

After about five minutes, Sakura walked back out of the bathroom wearing a blood red halter top, black shorts with black lace trim, black vans with red laces, black fingerless gloves, and a set of red and black bangles.

"As always, Deidara, you managed to pull together a perfect outfit for me. Thank you!" She gushed as she gave him a hug.

"Yeah, yeah, you should know by now that I'm just awesome like that. Now unless you want to be late for your first day, you should probably go downstairs and grab something to eat really quickly before you leave."

"I think I'll just grab something to eat on the way there, I saw the cutest little bakery just down the road from here by a ramen stand. I'll grab something from the bakery on the way there and stop at the ramen stand on the way back. Bye, Dei-chan!" Sakura called as she ran down the stairs.

"Be careful," he responded. He suddenly remembered something and quickly yelled down the stairs, "And don't forget to pay attention to the street lights!"

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**Please read and review.**


	2. Of Skateboards and Loudmouth Blondes

**Hey guys, I know I haven't updated until now, and I'm very sorry. I ended up getting my laptop taken away, so I wasn't able to start typing this up until I got to my mom's house. Oh, I made a few small edits to Chapter 1. Nothing too big, just that she's going to know Kakashi, not Shikamaru. I don't really have anything to say except I'm looking for a better title, if anybody has any ideas? Anyways, please review!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing in this story except for the plot and possibly some very, very minor-role OC's. Maybe.**

**Enjoy.**

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As Sakura walked to her new school, her thoughts turned to her current situation. What if the other students didn't like her? What if she didn't make any friends? Or worse…what if they didn't allow food during class?!

The pinkette halted abruptly. The reason for this sudden lack of movement was sitting in a display window across the street from where the girl was standing.

'That is the most beautiful skateboard I have ever seen,' Sakura thought in awe.

The bottom of the deck was midnight blue with a cherry blossom tree in the middle. There were small yellow dots that were supposed to be stars, and swirls of wind etched into the surface. On the other side there were pink and red filled-in cherry blossom petals and gold outlines against the midnight blue background. Sakura also noticed that the kanji for love was in the middle in a blood red. All in all, it was one of the most beautiful things Sakura had ever seen.

As soon as she stopped ogling the skateboard, Sakura walked into the store and bought it, along with a red choker necklace she saw by the register. She was back outside in less than sixty seconds. Now that she was closer, the pink-haired realized that there seemed to be a maker's signature or something when she saw the words 'Sand Master' in gold script along one edge. She spent a few minutes trying to figure out what that could mean. When she couldn't figure it out, she just shrugged and checked the time on her phone. She gasped when she saw that she now only had about ten minutes to get to school before she was late. At this point Sakura decided that it was as good a time as any to –ahem- learn how to actually ride a skateboard.

When Sakura neared the entrance to Konoha High School, she slowed down and came to a gradual stop directly in front of it. She allowed herself to take a moment to gather her bearings and steel herself against the inevitable stares that would be coming her way. When she felt adequately prepared, she started riding through the crowd of students. As expected, the vast majority of them were staring at her like she was some kind of freak show.

'**What, haven't any of them seen a pink-haired girl before? I'll kill them if they don't stop staring!'**

Sakura just rolled her eyes and continued forward. After all, she was used to hearing that annoying voice in her head by now.

The owner of the voice happened to be Sakura's split personality, her 'other self', who was unfortunately quite a bit more violent and mean than Sakura's normal personality. Luckily, she was usually able to maintain control over Yami, as she had dubbed the sarcastic voice. In most situations Yami wouldn't be able to take control, although holding her back often cased extreme pain to Sakura.

'Uh, no, they probably haven't. How many people have either of us seen who have naturally pink hair?'

**'Well, ourself.'**

'Besides us, you smart ass, how many pink-heads have you seen?'

**'…'**

'Yeah, and I've seen exactly zero. It's perfectly natural for them to stare at us and HOLY SHIT that's some red hair!'

**'I'll say, it's as red as a tomato!' **Deciding to completely ignore the stupid comment, Sakura glanced at the person out of the corner of her eye while she passed. She couldn't make out much, but it looked like the person was a boy about her age. He appeared to be sitting on a tree branch asleep. She would have turned to get a better look if it weren't for the fact that her Inner decided to make itself know again.

**'Ok there is no way that hair is natural.'**

'Why not? Pein has orange hair, and Konan's is blue.'

**'I'm pretty sure they just dye their hair.'**

'Our hair is naturally pink, so who's to say his red isn't natural.'

**'…'**

'That's what I thought. Now shut up for a bit, would you? I need to get my schedule.'

As Sakura opened the door to the main office, she greeted by a kind looking woman with dark hair and eyes to match. The woman smiled warmly at the young girl standing in front of her.

"Hello, how can I help you?"

"Oh, yeah, um, hi. I'm new here, Sakura Haruno? I came to pick up my schedule, please, said girl responded politely.

The woman-Shizune, according to her nametag-nodded and handed her a sheet of paper. "Class doesn't start for another fifteen minutes or so, they changed it a few days ago. I'm sure your teacher would like to meet you, so you should probably go ahead to your classroom." Once Shizune finished speaking, Sakura nodded, thanked her, and was about to head out when the brunette stopped her.

"One more thing. About your skateboard…"

"I know, don't use it in the school building, something about it not being safe, right?" Shizune just chuckled.

"Actually, what I was going to say is be careful when riding in the building. We have very wide halls considering we don't really have that many students, so as long as you stay in the middle and away from the lockers you should be fine. Also, your classroom is to your left when you leave here and is the eighth door on the right of the hallway. Good luck."

This time, Sakura smiled and thanked Shizune before she set her skateboard down on the ground again and started off to her class. As she made her way through the hall, Sakura was very happy to notice that one of her favorite songs, Money on My Mind by Sam Smith started playing on her ever-present iPod. Immediately feeling her mood go up, she started singing along with it.

_When I signed my deal I felt pressure Don't want to see the numbers I want to see heaven You say could you write a song for me I said I'm sorry I won't do that happily _

By this point she could see the doorway to her classroom, and decided that it would be best to just get the initial entrance over and done with, and continued rolling towards.

_When I go home I tend to close the door I never wanted more So sing with me Can't you see _

As she was finishing that verse, Sakura rolled into the classroom, where she could feel eyes on her. Suddenly, she felt the wheels of her skateboard catch on something. Just as it started to tip over, the pinkette pushed her feet off the board and suddenly found herself balancing on the toe of it. She simply stayed there balancing for a moment until she heard a very loud yell.

"HOLY CRAP, that's awesome! I wish I could do something like that!" Sakura looked up from concentrating to see a boy with (very) blonde hair, bright blue eyes, and whisker-like markings on his cheeks grinning at her. She instantly had the feeling that he was an idiot.

"Huh?" seeing the confusion on her face, the boy laughed and decided to elaborate a bit.

"Most people can't do that trick; it's one of the more difficult ones to pull off."

"…I'm sorry, but I have no idea who you are or what you mean."

"Oh, I'm Naruto Uzumaki, but you can just call me Naruto! I'm gonna be the next principal, believe it!" She knew it, he was definitely missing some brain cells in that yellow-covered head of his.

"Oh. Ok, good luck with that. But I have a question."

"What is it? He grew a bit more confused when the girl blushed a little and turned her head slightly in what appeared to be embarrassment.

"How do I get down from here?" At this, Naruto fell down anime style before getting back up and shouting, "You mean to tell me that you flawlessly pulled off that trick and yet you don't know how to get down from it?! Ahahaha!"

"Would you stop laughing at me and just help me get down already?! My leg is getting tired and I'm about to lose my balance." It was right at this moment that Sakura noticed somebody walk into the classroom. She turned to look at the person only to discover that it was the red-haired boy from earlier. Now that she was closer, she was able to clearly see exactly how red his hair was, as well as the thick black circles that were around his jade colored eyes. If she had to guess she would say that he was probably insomniatic. She also admired his outfit, which was a black Vampire Weekend t-shirt with a red longer sleeved shirt underneath. His shorts were black and a chain hanging on one side. He was also wearing a pair of black and red tennis shoes and a black sweatband on his wrist. She was slightly surprised to see what appeared to be a tattoo of the Japanese kanji for love on the left side of his forehead, but she decided not to dwell on it too much. All in all, she found the boy to be very handsome.

On his part, the boy was taking in her appearance just as much as she was. With her shoulder-length bubblegum pink hair and her jade colored eyes that reminded him of his own, she definitely had a unique appearance. Three things really caught his attention about her, though. One, when he looked closer he could see thin black circles around her eyes from what appeared to be lack of sleep. Two, there was a look in her eyes that he couldn't really decipher. Three, she was starting to wobble a bit.

The two teens just stood there staring at each other for a few moments while Naruto continued laughing at how she couldn't get down. The red haired boy noted that the pinkette appeared to be getting irritated at Naruto, seeing as how there was a tick mark on her forehead from the loudmouth blonde's constant ranting. He was proved right when the girl turned her head towards Naruto and raised her fist threateningly.

"You idiot, I didn't start skateboarding until half an hour ago! Forgive me for not knowing how to get down from something I've never done! Now shut your mouth before I shut it for you!" As soon as she finished saying this Sakura lost her balance and was about to fall when she felt someone put their hands on her waist to hold her up. She looked down to see a tennis shoe-clad foot balancing her skateboard. Once the person set her back down on the ground she looked up to see none other than the boy from the door looking down at her. He just looked at her and wordlessly handed her the skateboard. Unwillingly, the pink-haired girl bushed lightly. She was just about to thank him introduce herself when he looked behind her towards someone who had just entered the room. Sakura turned to see who it was, only to glare when she found out.

"What the hell are you doing here, Kakashi?!"

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**I hope you enjoyed this chapter. It took me a very pathetic amount of time to finish it. I'm hoping that I'll be able to get chapter up sometime this week. If I don't, than don't expect an update until the school year starts back up. Anyways. Please review!**

**Ja ne!**

**AngelInTheSky26**


	3. Of Questions and Hospital Bills

**Disclaimer: I own nothing in this story except for the plot and possibly some very, very minor-role OC's. Maybe.**

"What the hell are you doing here, Kakashi?!"

"Why hello to you too, Sakura. Nice to know you're worried about my well being," responded the man in front of the girl. He looked just like she remembered, tall, with silver hair that always seemed to defy gravity.

'So her name is Sakura, huh? It suits her, given the fact that she has pink hair all,' thought the red haired teen. He was the kind of person who liked to know what was going on around him at all times, so it was needless to say that the current situation was slightly unsettling for him.

"You're really one to talk. You know, with all things considered. Ha, sure showed us how much you cared. We were so stupid before." The silver haired man was surprised by the amount of hurt and anger in her voice. He reached his hand out to her, only to draw it back when the pinkette visibly cowered back from him in a defensive stance.

"Sakura..." The girl turned her head towards him just enough to give him a death glare.

"Don't act like you care."

"Sakura, I do care. Besides that don't you think I have a right to know?"

"No, I don't think so. You lost that right when you abandoned us. Now if you don't mind, I would like to get whatever introduction you're going to make me do over with." The silver haired man just sighed, knowing that he wasn't going to get anywhere with her. Besides, the bell for class to start had just gone off.

"Fine. Just know that this conversation isn't over yet. Now go introduce yourself to the class." As Sakura made her way to stand in the front of the room, all of the other students began making their way to their respective seats. Once everybody was seated, Kakashi addressed his students.

"Class, as I'm sure you've noticed, we have a new student here today, Sakura Haruno-san," Kakashi frowned, "May I ask why you changed your last name, Sakura?"

"No, you may not."

"Fine. Please tell us a little about yourself." The pinkette stepped forward.

"Hello. My name is Sakura Haruno. I'm fifteen right now. I like music, reading, and writing. I have trained in martial arts." Immediately after she finished speaking, several hands shot up in the air. Sakura pointed to a girl with red hair and eyes.

"Yeah, hi, I'm Karin and I'm curious, what made you choose pink? Seems kind of slutty if you ask me." The were a few chuckles throughout the room. The red haired boy observed from his seat in the back of the room as a giant tick mark appeared on the new girl's forehead.

"Ok, Karin, is it? Let's get a few things straight here. One, my hair is naturally pink and no matter how much dye I use it always stays pink. Two, the only slutty things in this room is the amount of makeup on your ugly face and the way you and your friends have been fawning over chicken butt head over there. And lastly, I don't take kindly to insults, especially from people like you. This is your only warning. If you choose to do so again, I suggest you be prepared for a hospital bill," she looked back up at the rest of the class, "If anybody else has anything to say about my appearance, get it over with now while I'm in a decent mood." She looked around, but nobody said anything. "Lovely. Are there any other questions?"

One boy decided to ask if she was single. "Yes, I am."

"What's your type?"

"Huh? Type? Like, my blood type?"

"They want to know what qualities you look for in a significant other," Kakashi shook his head, "You always were the ignorant one."

"Kakashi, shut up before I punch you. As for my 'type', as you say, I guess I'd have to say that I prefer guys who are taller than me, but not by a lot...Uh, quiet, but not overly so...Deep voice...Sweet, protective...Able to hold an intelligent conversation...Not preppy or extremely possessive, I guess...I've never really thought about it."

"Why not?"

"Well...I was never allowed to actually...go outside or...talk to anybody really..." By this point, the young girl was bright red with embarrassment. She knew that the vast majority of kids didn't have the same kind of of childhood that she had had, but saying it out loud in front of her classmates?

Totally different story.

And of course, the next question wasn't much better.

"What about your family? Who do you live with?" Sakura, whose mood had already soured with the last question, gave the kid who had spoken chilling death glare.

"Question rejected."

"Do you have any siblings?"

"Rejected."

"How do you know Kakashi-sensei?

"Oh, you mean this asshole traitor? Rejected." Not even bothering to look around for more hands, Sakura just stood where she was. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Naruto barely struggling to not raise his hand.

"Did you have something to say, Naruto?"

Said boy just grinned at her before saying, "I was wondering what kinds of books you like to read."

Sakura just blinked at the sudden change in topic and responded, "Uh, whatever I'm in the mood for, I guess. I like romantic comedies, but I also enjoy reading about forensics, metalsmiths, and archaeology. I watch a lot of documentaries, too."

"What did you think of Unseen: Alien Files?"

All of a sudden, every head in the room turned to look at the back of the room in astonishment. Not even noticing the reactions of the rest of the class, Sakura just looked at him and chuckled. "Honestly, I couldn't even watch it. I like to think of myself as an open-minded person, but even so I just can't wrap my brain around the idea of aliens, or at least the idea of UFO's. I will admit I can understand why people are so afraid of aliens abducting them and performing experiments on them. But really, we'd do the exact same thing, so it kind of makes them seem like hypocrites, don't you think? If aliens really do exist, I imagine they're probably just as afraid of us as we are of them." Sakura watched as the boy seemed to ponder her answer, then as he gave her a small nod. Taking this to mean that her answer was acceptable, she felt her mood lift and gave him an award-winning grin. The boy blushed slightly, although he turned his head before any of his classmates could notice. "Alright are there any more questions?" _Please say no, please say no..._

"Why do you have tattoos on your face?" The girl who asked this question was referring to the pink cherry blossoms that covered the cheekbone on one side of the pinkette's face. As attention was drawn to the tattoos, the students were also able to see a thin color-like tattoo of a large purple and black around her neck. The red haired boy noticed with curiosity the panic and sadness that was starting to creep into the girl's eyes.

Sakura shakily replied, "Question rejected."

"What?"

"You heard me. I refuse to answer the question."

"Why? Why won't you answer it? Why won't you tell us anything about your family, either?"

"I won't answer for two reasons. The first being, I don't want to. The second reason being that you are too ignorant to the ways of the world, and I refuse to be the one to ruin your naivete."

All of a sudden, the boy with the black chicken-butt hair-Sasuke Uchiha, was it?-stood up with a smirk on his face and made his way to the front where Sakura was standing.

"Oh, is that really why you don't want to tell us? Or is it really because you don't want to tell everyone that you were a whore?"

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**Please red and review.**


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